Use the MyOmBox and IFTTT API to control your Legrand & Bticino myHome home automation system with Google Home

We will explain in this article how to use the MyOmBox API with IFTTT(service available only in English) to be able to control your home automation system myHome with among others, a voice assistant such as Google Assistant(phone, watch, Google Home) or Alexa(but not available in France for now).

This article may seem a little technical for neophytes , but do not worry, we thought of you and our future SoMyOm application will be very accessible! However, it will take a little patience because there is a lot of work to achieve an application compatible with the main connected objects on the market and to live up to our ambitions, especially in terms of ease of use and configuration.

IFTTT & API

The IFTTT service, is an iPhone / Android / English website application that allows you to trigger actions according to certain conditions on a very large number of events, products or internet services.

The MyOmBox API is a piece of computer code on your MyOmBox, which will allow companies and third-party services(subject to authorization), to launch actions on your MyOmBox (for example launch a scenario).

The purpose of this article is to explain how to configure the IFTTT application for Google Home to launch the commands on your MyOmBox.

Steps and configuration of IFTTT with Google Home and MyOmBox

It is possible to do this from your smartphone but we advise you to do it from your computer because the few copy / paste to achieve will be easier while following this tutorial.

Image 1 – We advise you to use the links “Continue with Google” or “Continue with Facebook” which will enable you to register more quickly. You can otherwise click on the “Sign Up” link to register.

Image 2 – Once registered and on the IFTTT home page, you must then click on the “New Applet” link at the top right to create a new condition to trigger an event.

1 – Creating your IFTTT account

2 – Creating an IFTTT applet

3 – You must click on the text “+this” in blue to access the list of triggers. As you can see there are many, you can for example trigger a scenario “back home” when approaching your home with the service “Location” or create a voice command for your Google Assistant …

4 – Here we will do a search and select the Google Assistant.

5 – You must then click on the “Connect” button to allow the IFTTT service to communicate with your Google Assistant. Follow the steps by re-entering your ID and Google password.

6 – Once this step realized you will be able to click on the block “Say a simple phrase” in order to be able to enter the trigger element(your sentence)!

7 – You can then enter 3 different declensions of sentence that will allow you to trigger the event. The last 2 elements of the form at the bottom of the page are for the answer that Google Assistant will make to your request. Indicate what you need. Finally, click on the “Create trigger” button at the bottom to complete this first step.

3 – First if command on IFTTT

4 – setup of google assistant on IFTTT

5 – Sign in with Google assistant on ifttt

6 – Setting up a simple phrase google home with ifttt

7 – configuring voice commands google home and ifttt

8 – Now that the trigger is set, it will be necessary to configure the action to perform. You have to click on “+ that” to start.

9 – Then look for the block called “Webhooks” and click on it.

10 – Click on “Connect” button to permit the use of this module on your account

11 – Then click on the block “Make a web request” to go to the setting step.

8 – ifttt trigger configuration

9 – webhook http ifttt

10 – connection with the ifttt http trigger

11 – webhook request configuration

This is where it gets a little more complicated. We will have to call the right address on your MyOmBox to turn on your living room (in myHome Bus in this example)! In short, you have to build a web address in the following way:

<myombox_url>/API/<API_key>/myhome/bus/controller/<light_id>/<status>

The elements in bold are to be kept as they are, the elements in italicsare to be replaced by the good values!

<API_key> = this is the secret key used by your MyOmBox that will allow you to launch an action automatically from the outside.

<light_id> = this is the myHome address of your living room light in this example that you can recover from MyOmBox administration.

<status> = it is the action on the light that you wish to achieve, here “on” or “off”.

• 12 – <myombox_url> : If you have a dyndns or noip address you can directly use it without forgetting to put the redirection port (ex : http://home.dyndns.org:8080/ ). If you do not have dyndns or if you want to use our automatic cloud system, you must retrieve your external connection address directly from your MyOmBox (or from the settings of your IOS / Android application). As you can see in picture 12 you have to enter following your MyOmBox address in your browser: /API/url/external (ex for MAC: http://myombox.local/API/url/external – ex for windows: http://192.168.x.x/API/url/external). You must then copy and paste the address that starts with “https:\/\/” and ends with “myombox.com \/“. Then delete the 3 characters “\” in this address. If you copy the obtained address “https://000…..@cloud.myombox.com/” into another window of your internet browser, you should be able to access the interface of your MyOmBox.

• 13 – <API_key> : To retrieve the unique API key to your MyOmBox, you must go to the administration of your MyOmBox, “General” tab then “Security” and copy the character string “API KEY”.

• 14 – <light_id> : We get the BUS light address in MyOmBox administration, tab “MyHome” then “Light & Controllers”, here the12 for the living room (Salon in French).

• 15 – You must now fill in the URL field of the IFTTT form which will allow to turn on your light. As mentioned above your URL must be in the form <myombox_url>/API/<API_key>/myhome/bus/controller/<light_id>/<status>. Your URL should look something like this: “https://0000…00dc9:73790…0000@cloud.myombox.fr/API/578…578/myhome/bus/controller/12/on”

• 15 – In “Method” you have to select “PUT” and in “Content Type” you have to put “application / x-www-form-url …”. “Body” must be left blank. Then you can click on “Create action” to save the action.

• 16 – All you have to do is click on “Finish” to activate this first voice command.

12 – Find the cloud url of his myombox

13 – Find the MyOmBox API key

14 – APL recovery myhome bus light

15 – Configuring the ifttt query on myombox

16 – end of configuration google assistant ifttt myombox

The functional test

To test if it works, it may be necessary to wait 1 or 2 minutes. Then you just say “ok Google”, followed by the command you entered in step 7. If that does not work try to read again the article and check that you have not forgotten any character or letter in the address.

Commands currently available on the MyOmBox API

For now only the triggering of MyOmBox scenarios, the simple management of lights and electric roller shutters in MyHome Bus and MyHome Play are available. More official documentation will be available in mid 2018 with all the features of MyOmBox.

The operation of the following commands is the same as for the example above. You must replace the italic elements with the correct values. As a reminder :